A twice-weekly syndicated newspaper column on California public affairs.

Monday, February 13, 2017

TPP WITHDRAWAL A SOUND TRUMP MOVE

CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, MARCH 3, 2017, OR THEREAFTER

BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“TPP WITHDRAWAL A SOUND TRUMP MOVE”

From his first day in office, when
President Trump kept a campaign promise and dumped the Trans Pacific
Partnership (TPP) trade agreement painstakingly and secretly negotiated by
ex-President Barack Obama, he’s been accused of giving China unprecedented
license to move into other Asian and South Pacific markets.

Not so.

The first thing to understand here is
that the TPP contained some of the worst aspects of the long-controversial
North American Free Trade Agreement, better known as NAFTA, with very few
improvements. The second is that for China to usurp U.S. – and especially
California’s – trade in the 12 countries involved, those countries would have
to be willing partners.

The pact was to include Australia,
Vietnam, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, Chile, Peru, Canada
and the oil-rich sultanate of Brunei. None of these countries and states wants
to be dominated by China and since Trump pulled the U.S. out of TPP, China has
made no aggressive trade moves on any of them.

Which means all or almost all will
likely be back at the bargaining table within a year or so aiming to work out a
new free trade deal with Trump.

That’s political reality, even if some
Trump critics don’t like to admit it, choosing instead to blast every move he
makes just because it’s he making the move.

Rather than bemoan the trade agreement
that isn’t, how about using that failed, putative deal as a starting point for
drafting a new one?

The rejected agreement had some huge
flaws, just as NAFTA does. Labor leaders who applauded Trump as he signed the
order killing the proposed TPP said some of its provisions figured to send many
thousands of jobs out of America – particularly from California. Environmental
groups said it bore the potential to contribute to global climate change by
placing factories in countries with flimsy air and water quality regulation.

But its worst feature was an
international tribunal of lawyers from various countries with the power to
override some laws of member countries and even to overrule the U.S. Supreme
Court.

This was an outright assault not just
on tough state environmental restrictions like California’s, but also on
national sovereignty. Supporters of the TPP denied this, claiming such
usurpation of powers would never happen.

But just that threat was realized
early in NAFTA’s history with the overturning of some U.S. dolphin-safe
regulations for canned tuna because they impeded free trade. In short, because
some Mexican fishermen were not careful to avoid catching dolphins in their
nets in waters off Southern California, federal rules designed to spare an
intelligent species died at the hands of foreign lawyers more interested in
money than mercy.

Something similar almost happened to California quite directly,
also under NAFTA. This case involved a Canadian company called Methanex, based
in Vancouver, British Columbia, which made and marketed a gasoline additive
called MTBE that could cut smog while boosting octane ratings. But MTBE (methyl
tertiary butyl ether) turned out to have noxious odors and taste when it
inevitably leached from gasoline station storage tanks into ground water. The
additive also sparked cancer fears, although that alleged threat was never
proven.

California, under former Gov. Gray
Davis, banned MTBE in the late 1990s. Methanex sued in NAFTA’s tribunal and the
case was heard in Washington, D.C., far from affected Californians. The case
took several years, and eventually Methanex lost because of MTBE’s health
effects. Validating the California ban, the additive has not been used widely
in this country since 2005.

The entire Methanex effort at using
NAFTA to override California’s health concerns was a travesty. Yet, the TPP was
written to allow similar cases.

So the TPP was a bad deal on several
scores. Which doesn’t mean a better deal can’t be negotiated. Trump touted his supposed
deal-making skills incessantly during his campaign last year. Now he has a
chance to negotiate a better, safer, cleaner, fairer trade deal with Pacific
nations than Obama ever could.

-30-

Email
Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough,
The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch
It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias
columns, visit www.californiafocus.net

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About Me

Thomas Elias writes the syndicated California Focus column, appearing twice weekly in 88 newspapers around California, with circulation over 2.2 million.
He has won numerous awards from organizations like the National Headliners Club, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, the Los Angeles Press Club, and the California Taxpayers Association. He has been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize in distinguished commentary.
Elias is the author of two books, "The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government's Campaign to Squelch It" (now in its third edition; also published in Japanese and recently optioned for a television movie) and "The Simpson Trial in Black and White," co-authored with the late Dennis Schatzman.